School of Filmmaking

Ranked among the best film schools in the country, the filmmaking school at UNCSA
knows that you won’t become a filmmaker by just sitting in a classroom. In your first
two years at UNCSA, you will direct and shoot numerous digital projects as you take
hands-on courses in every facet of modern film production. Then you’ll choose a concentration—animation,
cinematography, directing, editing & sound design, producing, production design, or
screenwriting—and collaborate with classmates on original short films, submitted to
festivals around the world.

As a filmmaking student, you’ll be taught by and be able to network with industry
professionals—those on faculty and visiting guest artists. You will learn industry standards and protocol, and practice your craft on state-of-the-art
sound stages and studios with professional equipment. Every spring, you will have
the opportunity to attend screenings at RiverRun International Film Festival, which we co-host on our campus. Your senior year, you’ll travel to Los Angeles with
faculty mentors from your concentration to screen your films for industry executives
and influential UNCSA alumni. The goal of our conservatory is for you to become a
“complete” filmmaker—an experienced storyteller skilled in all facets of the moving
image arts.

Prior to becoming Dean at UNCSA in 2013, Susan Ruskin was a Production Executive and
a Producer in the film industry. Susan’s primary mission at UNCSA has been to design
a curriculum that teaches students every facet of the filmmaking process from concept
and production through marketing and distribution. While theundergrad film programis focused on shorter form, in 2015, Dean Ruskin created theMasters of Fine Arts film programfor Creative Producers and Screenwriters to teach students how to write or produce
feature length scripts with emphasis on the crucial entrepreneurial skills necessary
to make projects happen. The Media & Emerging Technology Lab is Dean Ruskin’s response
to the new advances in technology which are generating new possibilities for storytelling,
particularly in immersive.